La Maison Penet Lieu-Dit “La Croix l’Aumonier” Verzy Grand Cru 2011

Type: Sparkling Wine
Country: France
Region: Champagne
Grape Variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Climate: Dual climate subject to both continental and oceanic influences
Terroir: “La Croix l’Aumonier” is a locality located in the heart of the Verzy terroir on chalky soil oriented South-South-East, within which the Penet family owns a historic plot of land almost 40 years old and cultivated 100% in Pinot Noir
Winemaking: The wine, made from grapes carefully selected from the plot, vinified separately in 400 or 500-litre oak barrels without malolactic, immediately appears as a great Pinot Noir

Color: Rich gold
Nose: Intense and complex with notes of apple, toast and brioche
Palate: Pronounced on the palate with brilliant acidity over notes of red and green apples, pink grapefruit

About the Winery:
Tradition and modernity mark the character of this Maison of 5 generations in Champagne.

Penet-Chardonnet is a historic Maison located in Verzy, one of the 17 Grand Crus of Champagne. The family owns carefully cultivated 6 hectares, spread over 30 sites in the towns of Verzy and Verzenay in the “Montagne de Reims” villages, both renowned for the superior quality of its Pinot Noir. For more than 400 years and 5 generations, Penet-Chardonnet house has perfected its secretive traditional methods of preparing champagne.

The ancestors of the Chardonnet family already owned vineyards in the seventeenth century in Verzenay and then the Penet bought their first vineyards in Verzy during the French Revolution. In recent history, in the 1940s Emile, son of Gilbert, bought a magnificent nineteenth-century mansion, and there is the cellar where they had been developing exclusive champagnes for more than 50 years. As mayor of Verzy for 18 years, Emile and his wife Marguerite organized many events of high society, some of which with close associates of Charles de Gaulle. Emile expanded the farm by buying more land and was also the first person in town to use a tractor in the 1950s.

In 1967, Christian married Penet and Marie-Louise Chardonnet met the two families and founded the Maison Penet-Chardonnet. In the 1980s, willing to further expand the farm, he built a modern winery, which would allow the family to better control the process from the vine to the bottle. The new winery Penet-Chardonnet became one of the largest in the town of Verzy.

Today Alexandre Penet is in charge of the winery as a winemaker of the fifth generation. At an early age, Alexandre helped his grandfather Emile and then his father Christian in the art of making champagne, developing a passion from childhood with the aim of enriching a business where tradition and modernity were together.

While champagnes typically involve a blend of various plots, vintages, and grape varieties, Maison Penet follows a distinct philosophy of utilizing individual parcel wines to accentuate the unique character of each ‘lieu-dit’ or specific vineyard site.